Abusive Laois man avoids jail
Portlaoise Courthouse
A MAN who had been given the choice of either spending 12 weeks in prison or in residential treatment for his alcohol addiction was given a two-month suspended sentence, when he came before Portlaoise District Court.
The court was told that the 48-year-old defendant had not taken up a residential treatment offer since his last court appearance but instead was “hooked in” with the Anna Liffey Project, which provides support services for the homeless, problem drinkers and/or drug users.
When last before the court, Steven Hickey from 5 Holdbrook Way, Portlaoise was given the option when he pleaded guilty to being intoxicated and to engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour at McDonald’s restaurant, Kyle Centre, Portlaoise on 20 September last year.
At that sitting, the court was told that gardaí responded to a disturbance at the restaurant at 4.40pm. When they arrived on the scene, Mr Hickey was abusing staff before turning his attention on gardaí and he began abusing them. Such were Mr Hickey’s abusive expletives at the time that they could not be repeated in open court.
When the case resumed last week, solicitor Philip Meagher said that his client had initially been staying in a city centre hostel in Dublin, which had “all types of difficulties and were full of drugs and alcohol”, so he moved to another hostel outside the city and hooked up with the Anna Liffey Project.
Mr Meagher said: “He’s now spending a lot of his time in the Phoenix Park, walking and reading. It was his plan to go to residential care, but he has got into a good rhythm and routine. For the most part, he abstains from alcohol. He is now presenting in a more coherent manner and he has improved in his behaviour.” Noting that he had adjourned the case for Mr Hickey to seek residential treatment, Judge Andrew Cody convicted him of engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour and imposed a two-month sentence, which he suspended for three years, with the other offence taken into consideration.
